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October 24, 2009

Random Stock of the Day-PLCE

I haven't heard of the Children's Place clothing stores until it showed up in the Stochastic Wok just now. Talk about hiding in plain site; they have stores both at the Fayette Mall here in Lexington and in the Hamburg shopping district on the east side of town. I guess being childless has me not noticing them like my inner child will notice things like Toys R Us.

The financials look solid, with a bit too much inventory being the one point that sticks out; they have an inventory turnover of 4 compared with 5.1 for the apparel store industry, which means that average item is sitting around for three months. Kids stuff might be a little more timeless than adult clothing and thus staying around a bit longer, but that's not an encouraging sign.

They have lower debt and higher returns than their peers and their low P/E and Price-to-book mark them as a possible value stock.

Has any of the Peanut Gallery shopped there? If they actually do a good job of providing good clothes at fair prices, this stock looks like it should do well.